Computer technology is increasingly incorporated by musicians and multimedia production specialists to aide in the creative process. For example, musicians use computers configured as “sequencers” or “DAWs” (digital audio workstations) to record multimedia source material, such as digital audio, digital video, and Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) data. Sequences and DAWs then create sequence data to enable the user to select and edit various portions of the recorded data to produce a finished product.
Sequencer software is often used when multiple artists collaborate in a project usually in the form of multitrack recordings of individual instruments gathered together in a recording studio. A production specialist then uses the sequencer software to edit the various tracks, both individually and in groups, to produce the final arrangement for the product. Often in a recording session, multiple “takes” of the same portion of music will be recorded, enabling the production specialist to select the best portions of various takes. Additional takes can be made during the session if necessary.
Such collaboration is, of course, most convenient when all artists are present in the same location at the same time. However, this is often not possible. For example, an orchestra can be assembled at a recording studio in Los Angeles but the vocalist may be in New York or London and thus unable to participate in person in the session. It is, of course, possible for the vocalist to participate from a remote studio linked to the main studio in Los Angeles by wide bandwidth, high fidelity communications channels. However, this is often prohibitively expensive, if not impossible.
Additionally, a person may wish to collaborate individually on a project at different times. For example, a person in New York may create a track for a project in the morning and another track in the afternoon. Furthermore, another person in London may wish to access the project with the tracks created by the person in New York on the following day. Thus, collaboration on a project may require storing project data for latter use by multiple persons or users.
Various methods of overcoming this problem are known in the prior art. For example, the Res Rocket system of Rocket Networks, Inc. provides the ability for geographically separated users to share MIDI data over the Internet. However, professional multimedia production specialists commonly use a small number of widely known professional sequencer software packages. Since they have extensive experience in using the interface of a particular software package, they are often unwilling to forego the benefits of such experience to adopt an unfamiliar sequencer.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods and system for professional artists and multimedia production specialists to collaborate from geographically separated locations using familiar user interfaces of existing sequencer software. It is also desirable for multimedia production data to be archived and accessed for later use by individual users.